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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29992383">Our Last Summer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FormallyKnownAsFreya/pseuds/RangoAteMyBaby'>RangoAteMyBaby (FormallyKnownAsFreya)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Childhood Friends, Friends to eventual lovers, I literally do not know what else to tag that as, M/M, No Voltron Lions, Rock war, They're kids and they throw rocks at each other because they're little punks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 10:00:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,016</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29992383</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FormallyKnownAsFreya/pseuds/RangoAteMyBaby</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A new kid moves to the neighborhood and Lance sees this as his chance to finally make a friend his own age. Little did he know that Keith would come to mean much more than that in the years to come.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Keith/Lance (Voltron)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>57</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Our Last Summer</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/iybms/gifts">iybms</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Howdy folks! </p><p>I wrote this little childhood friends to lovers fic as a birthday gift for Iybms, who is an amazing artist and writer and that I admire so much. You are a literal gem and have contributed so much to the VLD fandom. I wish you nothing but happiness and success. </p><p>This is only the first in several chapters I plan on writing (probably a 5 chapter fic) so don't get sad or upsetti because it's so short. Just like everything I write, you just need to be patient and more will come. I promise.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If you asked Lance how he became friends with Keith, he couldn’t tell you. It just sort of… happened. </p><p>Lance grew up in the same suburb all his young life. From crawling, to walking, to riding his bike, his neighborhood and its inhabitants had been a constant presence. Every day was spent playing with his siblings or several of the other neighborhood children, though most of them were far older than him and didn’t have time for kids' games like he wanted. </p><p>He found himself wishing there was someone closer to his age that wasn’t his sister. Nothing against Rachel, but she never wanted to do anything he did, including bike races which were by far his favorite. Being a mere ten years old, it didn’t take much to entertain him, but the older kids only ever saw Lance’s tagging along as ‘babysitting.’</p><p>Then one day, across the street, there was a moving van. </p><p>The house there had been for rent but hadn’t had any takers for some years. But now a small van is being unloaded into the house. It stirs up some gossip among the neighbors, but Lance’s mother always navigated that particular field well. It doesn’t take her long to discover and reveal to her family what she found out about the tenant across the way, which isn’t much. Only that she’s a woman named Krolia who moved here for her work.</p><p>Lance didn’t even know someone else lived there too until three days after the vans left. The garage across the street opens one morning while Lance is playing in the yard and reveals a kid. </p><p>Lance couldn’t believe it. A boy. </p><p>Short and thin with dark hair that went past his neck. He wore a short-sleeve hooded shirt that was a little too big for him and knee shorts, sporting a few bandaids on his shins. He couldn’t be any older than Lance, and at the very least, he definitely wasn’t a teenager. </p><p>Finally, there’s someone on his street that is his age and isn’t related to him.</p><p>The kid grabs his bike off the wall rack, puts it down, hops on it, and takes off down the street before Lance can even stand up to say hi. Gone.</p><p>Next time, he tells himself. </p><p>Next time comes, and Lance manages to get out a wave and a ‘hey!’ but the kid barely acknowledges him and just keeps pedaling. Lance frowns and drops into the grass with a pout.</p><p>What is his problem? Here Lance is being a friendly kid just trying to be nice, and all he gets is ignored. The new kid couldn’t have many friends since he just moved there, but he still snuffs every one of Lance’s attempts at friendship. No matter how many times Lance rushes out to get his attention, so he can ask if he wants to play, the kid pretends he isn’t there.</p><p>Well, Lance isn’t a quitter, and he doesn’t care how hard he has to work to make a new friend, even if they are a little bit jerky.</p><p>The next day, Lance just sits on his lawn with his bike and waits. That kid can’t ignore Lance if he’s racing him down the street, now can he? This time for sure he has to notice him.</p><p>The dark-haired boy finally appears. He comes out of his house, hops on his bike, and like every time before, takes off without sparing Lance a glance. Lance scrambles to get his own bike up, hop on it, and pedals hard to catch up. He has a lot of ground to gain since the other boy had a head start, but with effort, he steadily gains. Before he knows it, Lance is a mere yard behind the boy. </p><p>But then the new kid abruptly skids his bike into a sharp turn and goes off the road. Without missing a beat, he speeds down a slope to a narrow dirt path, then towards a copse of trees at the edge of the woods. That’s all Lance sees before he hits his own brakes too late and crashes into a recycling bin with a yelp. By the time he gets back up on his feet, the boy is long gone, deep in the woods.</p><p>Lance’s bike isn’t made to go offroad. He can’t follow the new kid. With a defeated frown and scraped up knees, Lance walks his bike back home and promptly requests a dirt bike from his parents for his birthday.</p><p>In a week’s time, he gets his wish.</p><p>Lance stakes out in his yard again with his new bike behind one of his mother’s rose bushes. This time, surely, he’ll be able to follow. Lance won’t lose him, and they’ll finally get to talk. The moment the new kid rides off, Lance is in pursuit. </p><p>His new bike is just as fast as his last one, but this one will be able to go into the woods without trouble. Up ahead, he sees the dark-haired boy skid and proceed down the rough terrain onto the dirt path. Lance tries to skid it too but nearly eats it at the sudden drop. He only manages to keep from losing his balance for about three seconds on the way down before he and the bike topple over with a grunt.</p><p>Luckily, he only falls a short distance and not down the rest of the slope, but when he looks up the new kid is pedaling his way deep into the woods and disappearing around a bend. Lance rights his bike, gets back on it, and keeps going. The nature paths are harder to traverse than the roads admittedly, and several times, Lance has to slow down or risk falling down an embankment but he finds himself grinning.</p><p>There’s something exciting about trying something new and risky. </p><p>That grin doesn’t last long though. No matter how hard he pedals, he can’t seem to catch up. He can’t even see the new kid or hear his bike anymore, he’s just too fast. Lance keeps going anyway, at least, until he tires out and has to hop off his bike for a breather.</p><p>He hates to admit it, but he failed this time. He knows what to expect from the woods now though, so maybe next time, he’ll keep up better. </p><p>Lance shakes his head with a sigh and considers giving up. What’s the point after all? The kid clearly doesn’t want any friends. If he did, he’d hang around the neighborhood with the other kids instead of taking off on his own so much. </p><p>That thought disappears entirely when a flash of red in his periphery catches his attention. At the bottom of an extremely steep slope of trees and leaf litter, he spots the new kid’s bike and right next to him a familiar back of the head. Down there, near a bubbling stream, the new kid half-heartedly throws pebbles into the running water.</p><p>Lance can’t figure out how he got down there. The slope is nearly vertical and there’s no path, but somehow, he and his bike make it down there unscathed. He concludes that the boy must have carried his bike down there himself, that way someone can’t run off with it if he left it on the path. It’s smart. Lance decides to do the same thing, grabs his bike, and proceeds to follow him down.</p><p>Except he loses his footing instantly.</p><p>With a yelp, Lance loses hold of his bike, and both begin tumbling down the slope. He narrowly avoids hitting a tree, but his bike gets snagged on a bush. It stops, but Lance continues to roll head over feet until the hill plateaus out at the bottom. He comes to a stop with a pained oomph, his chin in the dirt inches away from the stream… and the new kid.</p><p>The boy blinks at him, his face blank of emotion until a single brow raises.</p><p>“Are you okay?” he asks but doesn’t move from his spot in the grass.</p><p>“I’m… fine,” Lance supplies with a grunt as he gets up. </p><p>He dusts leaves and dirt off his shirt and the seat of his pants before looking up the slope at his bike. Snugly held by the bush halfway up the hill. Undamaged thankfully. His parents wouldn’t be thrilled to hear about him messing up his bike after having it for only one day.</p><p>“Your nose is bleeding,” the boy informs him, pointing at Lance’s face.</p><p>“Wha—” </p><p>Lance wipes under his nostrils with the back of his hand. A small red smear. He didn’t even feel his nose hit anything, but now he can feel a fresh stream dripping down his lip.</p><p>“Here,” the new kid says, pulling a black bandana from his pocket and extending it to Lance.</p><p>Lance tentatively takes it and presses it to his nose. It’s not the first time he’s had a bloody nose, so he holds it securely in hopes to stem the flow.</p><p>“Thanks,” Lance says behind the bandana, but the boy shrugs dismissively and returns to throwing stones in the water. “What are you doing down—”</p><p>“Stop,” the boy interrupts, and Lance is so shocked he does. “I don’t want to talk to you,” he states plainly.</p><p>Lance frowns behind the cloth, slightly offended.</p><p>“Why not?” Lance asks.</p><p>“Because I don’t want any friends,” he answers, his stern gaze glued to the water. “Just gonna end up moving in a year anyway. No point.”</p><p>Lance deflates a little hearing that, his annoyance drying up in the wake of the truth. So that’s this kid’s problem. He doesn’t want to make friends he can’t keep. Lance supposes that makes sense, but he doesn’t care for it at all.</p><p>Mama McClain always says ‘you gotta try, even if you think you’ll fail at stuff. Otherwise, you never try anything and spend your whole life being afraid of failure.’</p><p>And Lance is no coward. He just has to trick this kid into not being one either.</p><p>“Who’d want to be friends with you anyway?” Lance huffs and takes a seat an arm’s length away. “You don’t even wave when people say hi to you. That’s rude.”</p><p>The boy shrugs and throws a rock into the water. </p><p>“Just like it’s rude not to introduce yourself,” Lance adds.</p><p>“You haven’t said your name either,” the kid reminds him with a spark of snark.</p><p>“I was gonna! But you interrupted me! Which is also rude!” Lance grumbles. “Name’s Lance.”</p><p>“Cool,” the kids shrugs but says nothing else. After a long stretch of silence, Lance grumbles in annoyance. </p><p>“Hello? Your name! What’s your name?” Lance huffs, frustrated.</p><p>“Why do you care? I won’t be around long enough for it to matter,” he sighs.</p><p>If that’s how he’s going to be, Lance will do the one thing he’s good at. Being annoying. Nothing gets people talking and engaging in conversation like someone poking and prodding at your buttons.</p><p>“Fine. Then I’m naming you,” Lance asserts. After a second of thought, he turns with a teasing smile. “Your name is Dogface now. Happy, Dogface?” </p><p>For the first time, the boy offers up more than a blank uncaring look. He turns his head, looks at Lance, and frowns, displeasure evident on his face. Lance just grins because he knows it’s working. This kid is gonna talk to him even if it’s just to argue.</p><p>“What? Don’t like it?” Lance asks, tone still teasing. “Well too bad, it’s your name now since you wouldn’t say.”</p><p>“It is not,” he denies.</p><p> “Also, you throw like a baby, Dogface,” Lance insults, ignoring the boy’s disapproval of Lance’s nickname. He picks up a handful of stones and stands. “I can throw one all the way down there, which is way further than you!” he declares and proves it, hurling a rock into the water at the designated space.</p><p>The new kid actually gets his defiant glare on his face. He clenches his jaw, grabs up his rocks, and stands too. For a second, Lance thinks he’s going to storm off, but instead, he rears his hand back and throws a rock just as far as Lance. Then gives Lance a sassy huff.</p><p>“That’s pretty good, Baby Dogface,” Lance teases. “But I can still throw farther!” he exclaims and throws another in challenge.</p><p>“My name isn’t Dogface, and I’m <em> not </em>a baby,” the boy huffs as he hurls another. “I can hit that tree. Can you? Noodle arms!”</p><p>“Noodle arms?” Lance blinks in offended shock before giving him a brazen grin. “I’ll show you noodle arms!” he says and throws it at the tree. “Take that, Dogface!”</p><p>The new kid hunches his shoulders tight as he almost growls and Lance wants to laugh. He looks and sounds just like a grumpy dog! Or a wolf cub!</p><p>“Don’t call me that!” he demands and hits a new target. </p><p>“Or what? You’ll throw a rock at me? I’d like to see you try!” Lance grins and runs down the river a little. “Dogface! Dogface!” he taunts while making faces at the kid.</p><p>The boy scoops up several pebbles and begins chucking them at Lance. He dodges and laughs when the boy misses but yelps when more than a few get him in the leg. That’s when Lance starts throwing his fair share of acorns and rocks back, hitting the boy in the arms twice and the stomach once as he weaves in and out of the trees cackling.</p><p>Lance isn’t sure when the boy stops scowling at him. One moment he’s furious, almost baring his teeth, but suddenly, he loses the glare turning it into a focused stare with a neutral pout. Then before Lance knows it, he’s on the receiving end of a cocky smirk. By then, they’ve reduced themselves to grabbing up river mud and slinging it at each other while laughing.</p><p>All the fun stops suddenly when someone (Lance is pretty sure it was the boy) hits a wasp nest on a rotten log with their mud ammunition. The buzzing catches their immediate attention, and both kids' eyes go wide as dinner plates as they take off comically screaming as they run upstream. Luckily, they find a section of water that’s a few feet deep, so they quickly wade into it and hold their breath under the surface to lose their pursuers. Once it feels like the coast is clear, they both surface and let out a breath of relief. That’s when the boy splashes Lance right in the face.</p><p>“Hey!” Lance objects, protecting his face.</p><p>“Bet I can hold my breath longer than you,” the new kid declares with a cocky look.</p><p>Lance is more than ready to accept that challenge, but then he sees that the sun is getting low. He’s gotta head home soon, or his mom will send out a search party. Already he’s going to get an earful for his wet muddy clothes, and the last thing he wants is to get grounded. Best to get home early, apologize, and pray she takes mercy on him.</p><p>“Um, I can’t,” Lance says with a frown. “I gotta go home. It’s almost dinner time.”</p><p>“Oh, right,” the boy nods, looking more than a little disappointed. “Me, too.”</p><p>The two of them drag themselves out of the water and trudge their way back to their bikes. It takes some finagling, but with the new kid’s help, Lance is able to get his bike back up the steep hill and onto the path again. They walk their bikes out of the forest and back up onto the road in silence, a pensive look on the dark-haired boy’s face the whole time. Once on the road, they hop onto their bikes and start pedaling back without a word between them. </p><p>Normally, Lance would say something, maybe talk about how much fun he had, but there’s a feeling in his gut that if he speaks, the boy won’t, and from the look on his face, he definitely has something to say. Lance skids to a stop in front of his house, his mother waving at him and telling him to hurry up, that dinner is almost ready, before going inside. He hops off his bike and the boy skids to a stop too, but he doesn’t cross the street immediately to return home.</p><p>“Uh…” he starts, and Lance turns to look at him. He’s staring at the cracks in the sidewalk. “Tomorrow…”</p><p>Lance waits for the rest of that sentence, but it seems the boy is chewing on it, clearly struggling with the words he wants to use as he nibbles his bottom lip in frustration. </p><p>“You wanna hang out tomorrow?” Lance asks for him.</p><p>The boy looks up, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. He then averts his eyes from Lance with a pout.</p><p>But he nods.</p><p>“Okay,” Lance shrugs with a smile. “See you tomorrow, Dogface,” he teases and starts walking his bike up the driveway.</p><p>“Keith!” the boy calls out, and Lance turns with surprise. That’s the loudest he’s been while not being angry. “My… my name is Keith,” he repeats, looking a little embarrassed.</p><p>Lance can’t believe it. He got him to admit his name! He knew that would work eventually! </p><p>Lance grins triumphantly, showing the gap in his smile thanks to his missing tooth, but Keith can’t quite manage to do the same. The most he accomplishes is an uncomfortable smile.</p><p>“Hmm, I like Dogface better but… okay,” Lance shrugs nonchalantly. “See you tomorrow, Keith,” he says and continues to take his bike up the driveway into the garage. </p><p>He props his bike up and waves goodbye to his newly acquired friend. Keith hesitantly waves back before quickly crossing the street and going home too. With that, Lance goes inside to get his scolding from his mom about his dirty clothes while Keith goes home with a smile for the first time since he moved, the both of them one friend richer than they were when they woke up that morning.</p><p>And both glad for it.</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>If you enjoyed reading this, please, leave a kudos or a comment. If you don't know what to write, you can simply leave a heart or the word 'kudos'. If you have a favourite part, tell me about it and how it made you feel. Any love you show for the content is always appreciated.</p><p>As with any of my works, you never need ask if you can make fanart. Just credit me and tag me on  <a href="https://twitter.com/RangoAte">My Twitter</a>. I always love seeing art of any kind.</p><p>Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there, Paladins.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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